Fourteen years after the Irish crime reporter and press freedom icon Veronica Guerin was murdered, an underworld figure believed to have facilitated the killing has finally been arrested in Holland.

Irish police have long suspected that John Traynor - a prominent Dublin criminal and one of Guerin's contacts - provided information about the journalist's whereabouts which led to her being shot dead in her car in 1996. Traynor was arrested last week near Amsterdam; he had fled to Europe after the Guerin murder took place.

The elusive criminal has been on the run for eighteen years, having failed to return to prison in 1992 after being granted home leave during a seven-year prison sentence for handling stolen bearer bonds. Subsequent to extradition, it is expected that Traynor will serve out the remainder of that sentence.

"He is now awaiting extradition to the UK to serve the remainder of his sentence," said Britain's Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).

"This arrest is as a result of ongoing collaboration with the Dutch authorities that Soca has to apprehend criminals operating in the Netherlands that impact on the UK."

At the time Guerin was killed, Traynor was seeking a court order to prevent Guerin from writing about his activities in organised crime. In 2008, one of the men cleared of having ordered Guerin's murder, John Gilligan, claimed that Traynor was "100 per cent" the man who had arranged the killing.

Only one man has been successfully convicted in relation to the murder; in 1999, Brian Meehan was jailed for life for driving the motorbike used in the shooting. The chances of successfully convicting Traynor for Guerin's death are thought to be low.

Guerin has become a press freedom icon in the years since her death; her life has been portrayed in two films, When The Sky Falls and Veronica Guerin.